Last Christmas SWR ran no trains on 25 or 26 December and shut Waterloo lines to 4 January; Hounslow pay-to-park was free on four days. 2026 plans due soon.
Neither South Western Railway, which runs Chiswick station, nor TfL, which runs the District line and buses, has published its Christmas 2026 timetable yet. We checked both on 25 September 2026. What they did last Christmas is on record, and it is the best guide to what to plan around: no trains at all on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, early finishes on Christmas Eve, and nine days of engineering work into Waterloo.
The quick answer
Last Christmas SWR ran no trains on 25 or 26 December, and on Christmas Eve its services ended before 10pm. No Tube or bus runs on Christmas Day in London; TfL runs all night on New Year’s Eve. Hounslow’s pay-to-park bays were free on 23, 24, 25 and 26 December and on New Year’s Day, including council car parks. The 2026 versions are not out yet; TfL published last year’s on 2 December, and this page will be updated when this year’s appear.
Christmas 2026 falls awkwardly
Christmas Day is a Friday, Boxing Day a Saturday, and the Boxing Day bank holiday moves to Monday 28 December. New Year’s Day is a Friday (GOV.UK bank holidays). Rail engineering is usually planned for the quietest days, so expect the long weekend of 26 to 28 December and the days up to 3 January to be where the closures land. That is an expectation, not a published plan.
South Western Railway: what happened last year
Chiswick station is on SWR’s Hounslow Loop; trains from platform 1 run to Waterloo through Barnes, the lines SWR calls the Windsor lines. Our trains and travel page explains the two platforms.
SWR’s festive page for 2025/26 (South Western Railway) set out:
| Date | What SWR ran |
|---|---|
| Wednesday 24 December 2025 | Services ended before 10pm across the network. The last trains from Waterloo on the lines via Barnes left between 8.22pm and 9.20pm; SWR's table did not list the Hounslow Loop separately. |
| Thursday 25 and Friday 26 December | No services on the SWR network. |
| Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 December | All lines closed between Waterloo and Clapham Junction. Reduced service, starting and ending at Clapham Junction. |
| Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 December | Lines through Barnes closed between Waterloo and Clapham Junction; those trains started and ended at Clapham Junction. |
| To Sunday 4 January 2026 | Engineering work between Waterloo and Clapham Junction continued, with reduced timetables. |
For Chiswick that meant the train into town stopped at Clapham Junction on at least four days between Christmas and New Year. On those days the District line from Turnham Green, Chiswick Park or Gunnersbury was the direct way into central London.
District line, Overground and buses
TfL’s 2025 announcement, published on 2 December 2025 (TfL press release), said:
- Christmas Eve: services ran but finished early.
- Christmas Day: no service across most public transport. Taxis, private hire, Santander Cycles, rental e-scooters and Dial-a-Ride were the exceptions.
- Boxing Day: parts of the network closed, including the Elizabeth line.
- New Year’s Eve: apart from planned closures, services ran all night.
TfL’s own Christmas travel page currently lists only autumn 2026 works. The 2026 announcement is expected in early December, as last year.
Parking over Christmas
Hounslow Council’s 2025/26 parking schedule (Hounslow Council, archived 24 December 2025) covered controlled parking zones and pay-to-park bays, including council car parks:
| Date | Pay-to-park charge | Enforcement |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday 23 December | Free | Normal |
| Wednesday 24 December | Free | Normal to 6pm, reduced to 7pm |
| Thursday 25 December | Free | No enforcement of resident or shared-use bays |
| Friday 26 December | Free | No enforcement of resident or shared-use bays |
| 27 to 30 December | Normal | Normal |
| Wednesday 31 December | Normal | Normal to 6pm, reduced to 7pm |
| Thursday 1 January | Free | No enforcement of resident or shared-use bays |
Three catches from the same page:
- Chiswick House and Gardens car park kept its normal charges and hours on every date. It was not part of the free days.
- Double yellow lines, dropped kerbs, bus stops and footway parking stayed enforced, with only Christmas Day free of enforcement and reduced enforcement on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
- The council’s page came down after the holiday. Expect a new one in December; it has not appeared yet.
Our parking in Chiswick page covers the car parks, zones and prices the rest of the year, and roadworks and travel has current closures.
Other Christmas pages
If you are heading out over the holiday: the Christmas bin collections, the Space Waye tip hours, Christmas markets and Christmas at Chiswick House.
What is still to be confirmed
- SWR’s Christmas 2026 timetable and any Waterloo closures. Expected by early December.
- TfL’s festive service and planned closures. Expected in early December.
- Hounslow’s 2026/27 parking schedule. Expected in December.
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